MoviesColin
Well-Known Member
Just a little tip I thought I'd share.
A lot of noobies or hobbyists use Plaster of Paris to create a stone mold for latex costume pieces. This is cheap and works great for most single-sided molds. But for masks or molds with a lot of curves it becomes a problem since the plaster chips and can break and fracture.
Ultra-Cal 30 is the "standard" and is a super strong "version" of plaster - industry professionals use it all the time.
Since it's heavy, it costs an arm and a leg to ship, and to me, that's a big deal since I have no local stores that carry the product.
Per the MSDS sheet for Ultra-Cal, you can cheaply make a version of it to use yourself. I did this, and I use it all the time for the added strength. This allows me to be more creative with sculpts and molds and also use less materials since it's stronger - instead of an inch thick mold, you can have a 1/4 inch mold that will be just as strong.
The ingredients:
Plaster of Paris
"Quickrete" Fast-Cure Cement
Gram scale
The ratio is 80% Plaster to 20% Cement, by weight.
For my recent mold (Wolf Predator chest armor) I mixed 650 grams of Plaster with 150 grams of Cement. My mold is around a 1/4" thick and came off of the mannequin with no fuss, no cracks, and no problems. The mold is strong and looks great.
I'd like to note that the MSDS sheet says: "85% Plaster, 10% Portland Cement, 5% Silica." Since I'm not sure exactly what Silica is or where to get it, I didn't bother with it and used the cement and plaster only.
The cement and plaster should both be powders. I mixed the powders together in one bucket and added the water (2 parts powder - 1 part water). The result looked, felt, and smelled like Ultra-Cal 30.
Just thought I would share.
A lot of noobies or hobbyists use Plaster of Paris to create a stone mold for latex costume pieces. This is cheap and works great for most single-sided molds. But for masks or molds with a lot of curves it becomes a problem since the plaster chips and can break and fracture.
Ultra-Cal 30 is the "standard" and is a super strong "version" of plaster - industry professionals use it all the time.
Since it's heavy, it costs an arm and a leg to ship, and to me, that's a big deal since I have no local stores that carry the product.
Per the MSDS sheet for Ultra-Cal, you can cheaply make a version of it to use yourself. I did this, and I use it all the time for the added strength. This allows me to be more creative with sculpts and molds and also use less materials since it's stronger - instead of an inch thick mold, you can have a 1/4 inch mold that will be just as strong.
The ingredients:
Plaster of Paris
"Quickrete" Fast-Cure Cement
Gram scale
The ratio is 80% Plaster to 20% Cement, by weight.
For my recent mold (Wolf Predator chest armor) I mixed 650 grams of Plaster with 150 grams of Cement. My mold is around a 1/4" thick and came off of the mannequin with no fuss, no cracks, and no problems. The mold is strong and looks great.
I'd like to note that the MSDS sheet says: "85% Plaster, 10% Portland Cement, 5% Silica." Since I'm not sure exactly what Silica is or where to get it, I didn't bother with it and used the cement and plaster only.
The cement and plaster should both be powders. I mixed the powders together in one bucket and added the water (2 parts powder - 1 part water). The result looked, felt, and smelled like Ultra-Cal 30.
Just thought I would share.
Good tip, thanks for passing it on.
